Toward a conceptualization of the musical self: A theoretical-methodological approach to subjectivity in independent musicians

Abstract

The objective of this study is to advance a theoretical and methodological proposal for the analysis of subjectivity construction in independent musicians. Existing social and cultural theories of subjectivity have not satisfactorily addressed the artistic experience of musicians. We present an analytic model that highlights the place of language from a perspective informed by dialogical theories and which also incorporates the aesthetic dimension of subjectivity in the occupational field. By analyzing six narrative interviews, we offer a qualitative insight into how independent musicians subjectively experience their musical activity. We constructed dialogical dimensions associated with four subjective movements in the interviewees’ discourse: aesthetic, activity, authorship, and reflectivity. Our findings about the configuration of musical subjectivity yielded three core points of articulation: musical self, existential self, and musical-occupational self. The musical self emerges as a particular subjective configuration, since creative activity represents a point of vital and occupational grounding where the boundaries between work and subjective experience appear to fade. Employing the aesthetic dimension of subjectivity made it possible to add complexity to the articulation and integration of various subjective elements of a psychological and social nature that have traditionally been studied in isolation.

Keywords

Subjectivity art dialogical self musicians dialogism

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